ecoLIVING London

Dear Neighbor:

A simple action you can take this week to help stop CETA: Make a Date with Your Favourite Canadian (about CETA). Once sent please forward along to stopceta [at] gmail [dot] com or come read it to us at Wed's meeting.

Today, emails were sent to: Sam Roberts, Canadian musician, Jian Gomeshi, CBC - Q program, Dr. David Suzuki, The Suzuki Foundation. To change the outcome of CETA, we must speak and often. Dare yourself to believe this is possible to stop. Why not?

Example letter sent tonight:

Dear Sam Roberts,

Do you know about the most dangerous environmental threat to hit Canada since Stephen Harper became prime minister? Maybe not, since it has fiercely been kept from press right from its inception in May 2009. CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, will threaten the Canadian and global environment in a number of key ways:

Further entrench the Tar Sands by forcing the Europeans to use Tar Sands oil.

Proliferate Canadian-bred GMO seeds throughout Europe.

Selling off of Canada’s freshwater to mega corporations like Suez and Veolia.

Plundering Canada’s natural resources at an increasing rate and further threatening the health and communities of Canada’s Original Peoples.

Taking our worst mining practices and standards across Europe.

CETA is much worse than NAFTA and is information all Canadians have a right to know about because it is not usual trading items up for grabs but instead public infrastructure (including health care, municipal services, schools, hospitals, etc.) and water. Like NAFTA, it is written with the Investor State clause that allows corporations to sue governments if there sales decrease when governments try to enforce environmental and social by-laws.

It is time to spark national debate on the dangers of CETA. It is clear now with potentially less than one month away until signing, that Stephen Harper is not interested in letting Canadians have their say about this incredible far-reaching restructuring. The CBC is in a risky position with 10% cuts across the board in January. It seems the only way to get this information out is through Canadians communicating.

More information can be found at www.tradejustice.ca, www.canadians.org, were you can view the Civil Society Declaration among which The Sierra Club, The Indigenous Environmental Network and 78 others have signed on to give CETA a scathing critique.

In Canadian and earth-loving solidarity,

Feel free to use this letter but shape it in a way that is yours and speaks to who you want to speak to.

Sincerely,

The Stop CETA Team
stopceta [at] gmail [dot] com

info [at] stopceta [dot] ca